Since joining Instagram in 2010, Miss K Michael, a self-described “rainbow child,” has shared a dazzling array of colorful outfits and hairstyles with her adoring fans, who number over 10,000. The 28-year-old Connecticut by way of Florida fashionista is naturally a dirty blonde, but you’re unlikely to catch that shade featured on her feed. Instead, you’ll see shades from bold pink to pale blue to purple, orange, ombré , black and much more.
Her wardrobe is just as bold, usually coordinated with her hairstyle. On holidays like Fourth of July, she puts her own spin on a retro patriotic red, white and blue, while other days have featured festive fruits and vegetables, such as a cherry tie and a bold yellow vest bearing carrots, grapes and radishes. You might even find her in an elegant forest green silk blouse with bold green nails admitting that she used lip liner on her eyebrows!
You’ll learn that she’s bisexual when she posts a self-portrait (her preferred word in lieu of “selfie) in a Spencer’s rainbow t-shirt with matching earrings.
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You may discover her rocking heart-shaped sunglasses, a crown, a stylish umbrella or pretty much any other fashion accessory. One thing’s for sure: No two looks of Miss K Michael’s are the same—and that’s on purpose.
She’s even taken some of Spencer’s own classic pop culture and other shirts and styled them in ways we could never have imagined! We called her up to talk everything from pinup style to hair dye to being likened to Katy Perry and making friends on Instagram. Check out our two-part interview below!
How old were you when you first got into fashion that you remember? What’s the earliest outfit you remember loving?
I dyed my hair black I think when I was 17. I just decided I was going to be a pinup and no one else was doing that at the time. I put red lipstick on and thought, I love this. I remember I wore it to school and I felt like everybody was staring at me. I was uncomfortable with it because it was so bold but really nobody cares.
I really didn’t feel like I was super stylish until I was 24 when I started working for this pinup store in Jacksonville called Subculture at a mall. They sold Gothic and pinup–style clothing. That was where I really got all of my inspiration. That started my whole style journey, was working for them. I had such inspiration from their clothing. It started from there.
How often do you dye your hair and what inspires you to do it? Is it ever done on a whim?
I had black hair for eight years. I love the black hair and I feel like it really suited me but my issue with that and the reason I changed it is I’m such an independent person. I try to be as unique as possible and I just got really tired of being called Katy Perry, as much of a compliment as it is to be called Katy Perry. A lot of people say “You look like Dita von Teese,” which is amazing because she’s absolutely gorgeous, but I just can’t live my life with people referring to me as someone else. I feel like I was known for looking like someone else and I just couldn’t do that. I decided to change my hair.
I got it lifted. I wanted to be as safe with it as possible. We did a really dark red first, then I went purple, then I went pink.
Now that I finally got it to silver in January, I’m on a pastel streak because I’ve never been able to do pastels. I’m currently blue, but I’m about to go mint green and I’m really excited about it.
How long do you usually have a certain hair color? Do you plan it ahead?
I don’t plan it. I get very bored easily. I’m always changing things. Me wearing wigs hasn’t helped either. I have a really short attention span. My hair’s at a stage right now where I can go another color. Sometimes it’s on a whim, sometimes it’s planned. It depends on my mood. I try to have each color for at least three months.
How do you coordinate your hair color and clothing?
I’m weird. I have certain things that I will only wear with the blue hair. If I want to wear a certain outfit, I’ll probably wear a wig that day so I can match it. I’m so particular with how the colors work with each other. Today I’m going to wear a brown wig and I’m wearing this purple outfit that I’m excited to wear that I might not wear with my blue hair.
When you’re making that decision, how far in advance do you plan your outfits, or do you decide the same day?
It depends if it’s a new item or an item I have already. I do try to think the night before:What am I going to wear tomorrow? I look at my page layout on Instagram and I’ll actually decide if I haven’t worn a color in a while. I decide it too based on how my page layout looks like. I don’t like to wear too much of the same color. I’ll ask myself what haven’t I worn in a while and if I feel like I can wear differently this time. A lot of it’s on a whim. I’m really good at putting things together. So a lot of times in the morning I’ll decide, I’ll wear this wig with this and this and this. I put it all together and it works somehow. I like being spontaneous.
How long have you been on Instagram and what do you like about it?
I naturally gravitated towards Instagram because I’m a picture person. I have a Twitter account but I’m never going to use it. Words can be boring to me. I love the visuals of pictures and how a picture can really mean whatever you want it to mean. I’ve had my account for eight years. I got it in 2010, the dawn of Instagram, before everybody really got into it. You can scroll forever. I think I have 15,000 pictures. Basically the last eight years of my life are on there.
I didn’t post outfit pictures every single day until three years ago when I really started to make it into something as opposed to just posting whatever. I love Instagram. It’s been a very interesting ride. It definitely has not been an overnight success. I just finally reached 10,000 followers.
From what I’ve noticed over the years, people see me as pinup and they expect me to be pinup every day. I think accounts like that are popular because people know what to expect. But with me, I don’t want to be the same thing every day. I like to do a little bit of everything, so I think in a way that hurts me, as strange as that might sound, because people don’t know what they’re going to get.
People will follow me for, say, a pinup post and the next day I post something that’s more Gothic or edgy, and they’ll say, “That’s not what I’m following the page for.” So I think that has hurt me in a weird way. At the same time I really can’t care because the people who are following me know follow me because they know I’m versatile and they follow me because I can do everything. It’s taken me a little bit longer to be successful in other people’s eyes, in terms of numbers.
I’m just being myself and having fun so if it takes me a long time to get a lot of followers then at least I know the people who do follow me are interested in my style overall, as opposed to me just being pinup. It’s been interesting to see what people like and what they don’t like.
What’s your relationship like with your followers? How much do you engage with them? Have you become friends with any of them outside social media?
If I like your account, I try to follow you back. It’s hard to do the more followers you get. I try to engage with everybody if I can. Unfortunately, with the Instagram algorithm, which is the only thing everybody hates about Instagram, I’m missing a lot of posts. People unfollow me because I don’t engage in their stuff but I can’t see their stuff.
I do my best to engage with people. I’ve made some of the best friends of my life, some that I’ve never even met in real life, on Instagram. I have a lot of relationships with a lot of people in Instagram. It’s a really awesome place to meet people that have the same interests as you. I do have a life and I do have a job. I do the best I can; I don’t have time to sit on my phone all day every day like I’d want to.
I appreciate all my following, and I’m really lucky I have a mostly female following, and it’s really awesome. I’m very modest. Women, do what makes you happy; if you want to share your boobies, you do that. My account is more modest and it’s beneficial to me in a way because I don’t have that massive influx of guys following me for other reasons.
What are your goals and dreams in terms of fashion and influence?
I have a Poshmark shop. I sell vintage items and things that I really love. I’m hoping to get my website Pretty Bold Things up. I’m hoping that my following will help boost the company I’m going to start. It will be bright and colorful things like my style is. I’ll also keep some basic items too, because I know not everyone is as crazy colorful as I am, and that’s not a bad thing. You can have little pops of color. I’m going to try to keep it in moderation. Some people don’t want to be a walking rainbow like I am all the time. My goal is to boost my own company.
Are these vintage clothes or clothes you owned or found?
With my store I’m going to buy a lot of wholesale items, but I want to make them my own, like add birds onto them or dye them colors or add patches. I’m going to make them a little more customized and fun. I want to take something plain and make it my own. That’s what a lot of the shop merchandise is going to be.
What about that pinup style and vintage clothes in general appeals to you? Do you feel that is more your style than more modern fashion?
I feel like pinup naturally is so classic. No matter what year it is, it always looks good. You always look put together. With my body shape, it just works really well so I gravitated toward it. Anything from this era that I put on looks good on my body, and looks good on most body types. I think that’s important when choosing a style, is actually having a style with things that look good on your body. No matter how much you think you like it visually on a hanger, it’s got to look good on you too.
I have a pear shape, so I’m supposed to gain all my weight in my lower half. With pinup styles, it’s very fit and flare, everything’s right above the waist. It’s just so flattering. It looks good no matter what you weigh. If you have a big butt, it makes your butt smaller; if you don’t have any shape, it gives you shape. It’s easy to love. And I like to feel pretty, and it makes you feel pretty.
You mentioned rainbow before, and I know you took a photo with one of Spencer’s shirts, the black shirt with a rainbow on it, and rainbow palette eyes. What do you like about coordinating makeup and accessories with your hair and clothes?
[At first] it was never anything I did intentionally; it was just how my brain put things together. Now I am that matchy, matchy person; it’s just me. I intentionally do it because I love it so much. It’s like a different theme every day.
Read part two of our Miss K Michael interview to learn more about her approach to fashion, style and social media!
